


Minnie Mouse

by patchfire, raving_liberal



Category: Glee
Genre: Alive Finn Hudson, Child Abandonment, Custody Arrangements, First Kiss, Los Angeles, M/M, Parenthood, Protective Siblings, Sharing a Bed, Trouble, Tumblr: fuckurtweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 07:12:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6109058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patchfire/pseuds/patchfire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn can’t let Jessie take a cross-country flight on her own.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Fuckurt Week Day 4: Trouble</b>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Minnie Mouse

Before Noah leaves for LA, when Jessie is eleven, he double-checks her phone, making sure what numbers she has programmed in. He gives her an extra charger for her phone to keep in her purse and then in her locker in middle school, and two extra battery packs. Jessie rolls her eyes, but she keeps one of them in her purse and one of them in her backpack. 

Her purse and her backpack are brand-new, too, along with a rolling carry-on suitcase and a matching toiletry bag, because Noah says he won’t be there for her twelfth birthday, and he’s not totally sure about Hanukkah, so he’s doing it all upfront. It doesn’t make much sense to Jessie, but she has cool new stuff, even if it’s not the exact stuff she would have picked. 

Noah’s been in LA for three weeks before she finds the iTunes card tucked in her new wallet. 

In October, a few weeks after Jessie turns twelve, their father shows up in Lima for the second time that year. This time, he doesn’t leave right away, turning up at their house to talk to their mom periodically, but Jessie doesn’t tell Noah, not when he’s in town for Thanksgiving and not when he’s back around Hanukkah to see their half-brother.

By late February, her mom says she’s going away for the weekend with him, and that she’ll see Jessie before school on Monday, but if not, definitely after school on Monday. She tells her what food is in the house, not to turn the heat up too high, and where the emergency cash is. Jessie’s mostly excited to have the house to herself, and she’s not even too surprised when Tuesday afternoon rolls around and her mom still isn’t back. 

A week later, though, the emergency cash has been used, mostly on pizza and Chinese, the refrigerator is mostly empty, and Jessie’s opening an old can of soup for her dinner. She has enough cereal for breakfast in the morning, money for lunch at school, and a pack of Pop-Tarts for a snack after school on Wednesday, and she decides, as she eats the soup, that if her mom isn’t back after she eats the Pop-Tarts, she probably has to call someone.

No one is home when Jessie gets off the bus on Wednesday, and while she eats her Pop-Tarts, she dials her mom’s number for the seventh time in as many days. She doesn’t leave a message when it goes to voicemail, and she hasn’t since the third time she called. Noah is in LA, and Jessie knows it takes him days to get home. She should have called him earlier. 

The only number left in her phone that isn’t one of her friends at school is Finn’s. Jessie knows Finn wasn’t even living in Lima when Noah left, but she knows he’s in Lima now, and what Jessie needs is someone she can trust, who won’t call Children Services but will make sure she has something for dinner. Finn is, she thinks, probably that person. He’s definitely more likely to be that person than any of her friends’ parents, and that makes the decision easy. She throws away the Pop-Tart wrapper and dials Finn’s number. 

“Hello? Jessie?” Finn’s voice says. “Is that you?”

“It’s me,” Jessie says. “Hi. Um. I need dinner?” 

“Huh? I mean, okay, sure, you need me to come get you from somewhere?”

“I’m at home, but… I guess I should explain it? You could bring dinner here?” Jessie suggests, because she’s still not tired of pizza. 

“Okay. Sure,” Finn says. “What do you want? Black olives and sausage?”

“You remembered!” Jessie says, feeling pleased. “Yes, thank you.” 

“See you in a few, Minnie Mouse.”

“Ugh!” Jessie glares at the phone as the call ends, then decides to clean up a little bit for Finn shows up. All she really does is take out the trash, start the dishwasher, and dump toilet bowl cleaner into the toilet, but at least it looks like she tried. 

Thirty-two minutes later, at least according to her phone, Finn knocks on the door, and Jessie opens it, wishing she’d taken five minutes to vacuum or something. She opens the door anyway, though, smiling as best as she can, considering everything. 

“Hi!” she says brightly. 

“Hi,” Finn says, holding up his laden arms. “I have pizza and cheesy bread and pop and those cookies you like.”

“Ooh, awesome,” Jessie says, and she takes the pop and cheesy bread from Finn and puts them on the table. “Can I eat first?” 

“First before what?” Finn asks, but he doesn’t argue. He sits down at his usual spot at the table, when he would stay over, and watches Jessie load up a plate before he takes any food himself. 

Jessie eats a piece of cheesy bread and drinks most of her first glass of pop before she answers. “Before I explain why I needed dinner.” 

“Okay,” Finn says. “Eat as much as you want.”

Jessie nods and does, then fills her glass a third time as she eats a cookie after the pizza. “Um, so Mom’s not here.” 

“She ditch you for the night?” Finn asks. 

“Not exactly.” Jessie takes a big gulp of her pop, the way she always saw Noah and Finn do it. “She went away for the weekend. With, you know. Our dad.” 

Finn winces. “She left you alone all weekend?”

“Last weekend,” Jessie admits. “She didn’t come back, but there was enough food and money here, and I figured maybe she’d be back Monday or yesterday, but she wasn’t, and all I’ve got left is cereal for the morning.” 

“Oh, shit!” Finn says, then, “Sorry. I mean, have you talked to her on the phone at all?”

“I tried to call. I left a few voicemails, but since she didn’t return them, I stopped leaving them,” Jessie says. “Noah planned ahead for me but not for this.” 

“Is there anybody else you can call?”

“If I called any of my friends’ parents, they would have called Children Services,” Jessie says matter-of-factly. “And Nana can’t drive anymore.” 

“Okay,” Finn says. “Okay. Well, do you want me to drive you to Nana’s? Or do you want to come home with me for the night?”

“I still need to go to school tomorrow, right? So I’d better come with you. And probably call Noah.” 

“Alright. Finish eating and get your stuff packed up,” Finn says. 

Jessie nods. She eats a second cookie, finishes her glass of pop, and then puts the few clean clothes in her carry-on and all of her toiletries in the toiletry case. “Finn?” she calls from the bathroom. “Um, can I do laundry with you?” 

“Sure. Just bring whatever you need.”

“Okay.” She empties the laundry hamper into one of Noah’s old duffel bags that he didn’t take to LA, and then picks up all three bags and sets them by the front door beside her backpack and purse. “I guess I’m ready.” 

Finn looks around the apartment. “So, uh, this maybe sounds weird, but do you know where your mom keeps important papers?”

“Like the file drawer on the computer desk?” 

“Yeah, okay. Hang on a second.” Finn goes to the computer desk and opens the drawer, rifling through files until he finds whatever he’s looking for. He takes three or four papers out of the desk, plus an envelope, and rolls them up, shoving them into the back pocket of his jeans. “Okay, now we can go.”

“Cool.” Jessie realizes after she’s in Finn’s Jeep that she’s not sure if he’s living on his own or still with his mom and the car guy or what. “Where are we going?” 

“My house. Is that okay?”

“Like, your house with your mom or like you bought a house?” 

“I’m nineteen, Minnie Mouse,” Finn says. “How am I gonna buy a house?”

Jessie shrugs. “I dunno. So is your mom home?” 

“She’s probably home, yeah, but don’t worry. I’ll tell her your mom got stuck somewhere and asked Puck to ask me to let you stay with me.”

“Okay.” Jessie exhales. “Why do you still call him that?” 

“Uh, because that’s his name, and I’ve been calling him that for like twelve years?”

“But you’re both nineteen. Shouldn’t you use grown-up names?” Jessie asks as Finn pulls up at his house. 

“You want me to start calling you Jessamyn?” Finn asks. 

“ _No_. I’m twelve.” 

“Well, either he’s Puck and you’re Jessie, or he’s Noah and you’re Jessamyn, so I guess pick whichever one you want,” Finn says. 

“I’m not a grown-up,” Jessie insists. She picks up all of her bags except the duffel bag of laundry. “I just want to shower and get calling over with.” 

Finn picks up the duffel bag and slings it over his shoulder. “I can call him, if you want me to.” He nods his head towards the front door and waits for Jessie to start walking. 

“He’ll probably curse more at you,” Jessie says, “but that’d be nice. He’s very dramatic.” 

“Yeah, he is,” Finn says. He follows Jessie to the door, locking it before pulling it closed behind him. 

“Can I shower while you tell your mom?” Jessie asks. “Which way?” 

“Over there. The black one,” Finn says, pointing at a SUV-jeep-thing. “Yeah, I’ll talk to Mom. You shower and I’ll take care of all of that.”

Jessie nods, feeling tired suddenly. “Okay. And you’ll take me to school tomorrow and pick me up?” 

“Yeah. Don’t worry about. Everything’s going to be okay now,” Finn says. Jessie nods again and puts everything into Finn’s vehicle, then gets in and fastens the seat belt, leaning her head against the window. She’ll let Finn and Noah figure things out now. 

 

Puck has forty-five minutes left in the mid-afternoon hour he allocates for his late lunch break when his phone rings. It’s Finn, which is only unusual because usually he and Finn text, but it isn’t that weird. Puck takes another drink of his pop and sets it down before answering the call. 

“Hey,” he says cheerfully. “What’s up in the frozen wasteland?” 

“Puck, we have a problem, everything is seriously messed up, and we have a _major_ fucking problem!” Finn says all in one frantic rush. 

“Wait, what? What’s going on?” Puck asks. 

“Your mom. Your crazy, messed up mom, that’s what’s going on!” Finn says. “She left Jessie. She just _left_ her!”

“ _What_?” Puck says. “Are you fucking kidding me? Like she went to Dayton or something?” 

“Worse. She ran off with your stupid dad!”

“ _Shit_. When? I know Jessie wouldn’t have called you if it was today. Was it Monday?” Puck asks. 

“She’s been gone for like a week and a half,” Finn says. 

“Holy shit. How did Jessie—why didn’t she tell me!” 

“She had some money, and I guess she thought your mom would be back,” Finn says. “She was down to nothing but cereal when she called me. I think she was almost out of clothes, too. I’m running some laundry now. She’s been in the shower for like forty-five minutes.”

“Don’t dry her training bras, you’ll ruin ‘em,” Puck says quickly. 

“What is she training for?” Finn asks. “And, hey, no way! Minnie Mouse doesn’t wear bras.”

“Dude, she’s twelve,” Puck points out. 

“No, she’s ten.”

“We can argue about our little Minnie Mouse growing up some other time,” Puck says. “Shit. She can’t go to Nana’s. Nana can’t even drive anymore.” 

“Yeah, that’s what Jessie said. I’m letting her stay here right now, but then we have to figure something out for her,” Finn says. 

“Shit, what’d your mom and Burt say?”

“Well, I couldn’t tell Mom that your mom just abandoned her! She’d have to call Children Services!”

“I know she would, so how’d you explain a suddenly appearing Jessie?” Puck asks. 

“I said your mom had ditched her for the night,” Finn says. “Mom did her whole judgy frowning thing, but she didn’t argue. I guess it sounded like something your mom would do.”

“Well, yeah, ‘cause she _did_ do it,” Puck says, feeling tired and disgusted at the same time. “I guess you need to send her out here.” 

“Alone? That flight’s, what, six hours?”

“I can’t take another chunk of time off,” Puck explains. “Especially if I’m going to, I don’t know, enroll her in school here? All of that shit. Hell if I know what you do with a twelve year old.” 

“I’ll bring her out,” Finn says. “I’m not doing anything important right now. I’ll bring her and help you get shit figured out.”

“Yeah. Okay. You can go to Ikea with me or something, since Minnie Mouse’ll need a bed,” Puck says. “Shit. I want to say I can’t believe that they pulled this, but I kind of can, you know?” 

“Yeah, I know,” Finn says, sounding sad. 

“Make sure she has anything she wants from the house, okay?” Puck says. “She probably didn’t grab her books or anything.” 

“I’ll go back over there for anything she needs. You know I’ll make sure she’s okay, right?”

“Yeah, I know. I just don’t know how either of us make this okay,” Puck admits. “I’ll be done for today around ten your time. Keep me updated?”

“I will. I got her papers and stuff,” Finn says. 

“Okay. Shit. Yeah. Thanks,” Puck says, rubbing his hand over his face.

“I think the shower stopped. Call me later, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Puck says. “Later.” He ends the call and stares at his phone, clenching it a little too hard. “Shit. Fucking pieces of shit, both of them,” he says out loud. “She’s only fucking twelve!” The wind blows a little, but doesn’t answer, and Puck sighs. “I hope she likes LA.” 

 

Finn wakes Jessie up later than she has to get up to catch the bus, but since he’s driving her to school, she still has time to eat breakfast, which isn’t cold cereal without milk. Jessie leaves everything but her backpack, including her now-clean clothes, at Finn’s house, even though she’s a little worried about Finn’s mom noticing. 

“You’re sure your mom won’t think I brought too much stuff?” Jessie asks as soon as they’re walking to Finn’s SUV-jeep-thing. 

“It’s fine, Minnie Mouse,” Finn says. “Hey, I need your key.”

“My house key?” 

“Yeah, I’m going to go by there and get some of your stuff, like some of your books. Anything else specific you want?”

Jessie frowns and takes out her key, handing it to Finn before getting in and buckling up. “The box on the top shelf of my closet, I guess.” 

“Okay. Do you have a pillow or something? Like that stuffed dog, with the spots?” Finn asks. 

“He’s in that box,” Jessie says. “And there’s a binder on my desk.” 

“Alright. I’ll get it all,” Finn promises as they drive in the direction of her school. “And I’ll pick you up after school right on time, too.”

“Okay.” Jessie jumps as she thinks through the day. “I need lunch money.” 

“Is five dollars enough?”

Jessie laughs. “Prices haven’t gone up _that_ much in seven years. You’re a grown-up, not old.” 

“I have a five in the glovebox, is why,” Finn says. “You can take that.”

“Okay,” Jessie says, still giggling as she opens the glovebox. “You didn’t tell me if Noah cursed at you or not.” 

“Not at _me_.”

“I knew he’d start cursing,” Jessie says. “Was it a lot?” 

“Eh, medium amount,” Finn says. 

“He _did_ put your number in my phone before he went to LA.” 

Finn sighs. “I guess he thought something might happen where you’d need it.”

“He wasn’t wrong,” Jessie says with a little shrug. “Tell your mom and the car guy I said thanks for breakfast, it was really good.” 

“Yeah, I will,” Finn says. He pulls up to the curb in front of her school. “Here you go. What time are you out?”

“Three-thirty,” Jessie says. “But you can wait as late as three-fifty.” 

“I’ll be here at three-thirty,” Finn says.

“You two are _so_ much alike,” Jessie says, climbing out and reaching back in for her backpack. 

“Thanks!” Finn says. “Have a good day.”

“Oh my God, you would take it as a compliment,” Jessie says, shaking her head. “Bye, Finn.” 

“Bye, Minnie Mouse!”

“Ugh!” Jessie says, sticking out her tongue as she shuts the door, then going into school. No one at school’s noticed anything is different yet, and she wants to keep it that way. Having a five for lunch money after days of exact change is the only weird thing, though, and no one thinks it’s that strange. Jessie didn’t ask if Finn getting her stuff means she isn’t going back home, and she’s glad she didn’t, because it lets her act mostly normal during the day, even when she goes out to the car line instead of to the buses. Everything’s as normal as it gets, as far as anyone else knows, and that’s fine with her. 

 

Puck misses the first call that he gets from Finn on Thursday morning. He’d figured it might happen, given the time difference and when his class meets, and probably he should have told Finn that he was taking classes, but he’s in the middle of his third semester now, taking classes before and after pool cleaning, and since he _hadn’t_ mentioned it before, it didn’t seem like the perfect time. 

Part of him can’t believe that his mom went off and just left Jessie by herself, especially not with his stupid dad, but now that it’s happened, he can’t say he’s surprised. He just didn’t _expect_ it to happen, and definitely not while Jessie was still so young and so fast after Puck left Lima. Puck hadn’t been prepared to have Jessie in LA, and even after a pretty frantic evening, he’s still not. 

He hadn’t taken much to LA, and his studio apartment does have a very small room that he’d been mostly using for storage, next to the bathroom and the closet. He’d measured it out the night before and decided a loft bed would fit in it, with room below it for a desk and a chest of drawers. Jessie’ll understand, and at least he can give her a little bit of privacy. His bathroom stuff already doesn’t take up much room, and there’s room in the bookcases and closet. It’s hard not to excuse himself from microbiology and call Finn back right away, but he doesn’t. He even waits until he’s agreed to a study group meeting time on Sunday—not sure if he’ll have to end up canceling—before leaving the building and pulling out his phone. 

Puck stares at it for a few seconds, then sighs and calls Finn. Ignoring Lima won’t change anything, and anyway, it’s definitely not Finn’s fault or problem. The phone rings one and a half times before Finn picks up. 

“Hey,” Finn says. 

“Sorry I missed your call,” Puck says. “I, uh, was in class.” 

“You’re taking classes?” Finn asks, sounding less surprised than Puck would have thought. “That’s great. You must be liking it out there.”

“Yeah, it’s community college, but it’s good,” Puck says. “How’s Jessie?” 

“I’m about to pick her up. Did you want to talk to her?”

“Did you tell her yet you were bringing her out here? When _are_ you bringing her out here?” 

“Our tickets are butt-early tomorrow morning, and uh, no, I was hoping maybe you could do that part,” Finn says. 

Puck laughs. “Yeah, I figured you were. What time do you land out here?” 

“Nine.”

“How many stops? You’re gonna be on a plane for like twelve hours!” Puck says. 

“Nine in the _morning_ ,” Finn says. 

“Oh my God, you’re renting a car, right? Do you know what LA traffic is like?” 

“I mean, I guess me and Minnie Mouse can walk from the airport, if it’s too much of a problem for you to come get us.”

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” Puck says. “You wanted me to get up at five am too!” 

“Huh? I just booked the flight that was open. Why, are you really far from the airport?” Finn asks. 

“Dude, I’m going to have to leave at like seven in the morning to get there by nine,” Puck explains. “And try to get back before class.” 

Finn sighs. “Okay. I guess text me your address or something and I’ll rent a car.”

“I could call you a taxi or something, maybe,” Puck says. “I just figured it’d be this weekend.” 

“The weekend flights were just a lot more expensive. Sorry.”

“If we ever find ‘em again, we’ll bill ‘em. Did you get everything she wanted from the house? I don’t know what’ll happen there. I guess eventually they’ll evict the stuff.” 

“Yeah, I got her stuff,” Finn says. “No sign of your mom still.”

“Yeah, somehow I figure we’ve probably seen the last of her, if she left her twelve year old alone for more than a week.” Puck sighs. “Okay. You getting Minnie Mouse now or you want her to call me after you pick her up?” 

“She’s walking up to the car,” Finn says. Puck can hear a car door open and close, and then a rustling. 

“Noah?” Jessie says after a moment. 

“Hey,” Puck says. “School go okay today?” 

“Yeah, it was fine. I got ice cream at lunch since Finn gave me five dollars for lunch money.” 

Puck laughs. “Good to know you didn’t consider giving him the change. Listen, uh, I haven’t heard from Mom either. And… we don’t know if we will, right? So Finn’s going to bring you out here.” 

“To LA?” Jessie says. “For how long?” 

“Uh, for good, Minnie Mouse,” Puck says, “unless you wanted to take your chances with Children Services.” 

“Oh.” Jessie doesn’t say anything right away. “When?” 

“Tomorrow,” Puck says. “You and Finn are going to fly out in the morning. I know it kind of sucks. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s not your fault,” Jessie says. “Do you want to talk to Finn again now?” 

“Just because you’re the calm one doesn’t mean you have to be _this_ calm, Minnie Mouse,” Puck says. “Yeah, hand the phone back to Finn.” 

After a little more rustling, Finn says, “Hey.”

“I don’t know if I should be glad she took it as expected or worried she didn’t react more,” Puck says. “How’s she look? Calm?” 

“Not surprised,” Finn says. “Not mad, either, though.”

“We can go to this taco place near my apartment for lunch tomorrow that she’ll like or something. I don’t know. Hopefully I can figure out how to get her in school here and they have guidance counselors who aren’t more interested in the Spanish teacher.” 

“Yeah. _Can_ you enroll her in school there? Like, without a lawyer?” Finn asks. 

“I can file for temporary emergency guardianship on Monday, and then un-temporary it later. I called the Legal Aid people and everything,” Puck says. “Probably she won’t be in school until a week from Monday, but better than nothing.” 

“Yeah, that’s great,” Finn says. “I’m gonna drive her home and feed her, and I guess explain to my mom where I’m going to be for the next couple of days.”

Puck laughs. “Yeah, good luck with that. You can’t just disappear?” 

“You know my mom. She’s a question-asker.”

“Oh, I know, I was just thinking more along the lines of ‘impromptu vacation’,” Puck says. “It’s not even totally a lie.” 

“I’ll figure something out,” Finn says. “See you bright and early.”

Puck groans. “Right. Go to bed early. Later, dude.” 

“Not _that_ much later,” Finn says. 

Puck laughs and ends the call, then heads out to his first pool of the day. It’s probably good that he’d decided to only clean pools in LA, no extracurricular activities, because that’d take longer, too. In between homework and finishing clearing out the room, Puck figures he’ll have to look at his schedule, too, and see if he can afford to cut back, even if it’s only by a few clients. 

 

Everything about the rest of Thursday is surreal, including filling a large suitcase borrowed from Finn’s mom, and waking up early for the dark drive to the Columbus airport on Friday morning isn’t any less surreal. By the time she should have been walking into school, she’s somewhere over Illinois or Iowa or something. When they land in LA, it’s only 9 am, which is weird, and it’s even weirder when they emerge and there’s a driver holding a sign that says “Hudson.” 

“Is that you?” Jessie asks Finn, poking him and then pointing. 

“Yeah, I guess so,” Finn says. “I mean, I’m Hudson, obviously.”

“But did you order a taxi?” 

“Yeah. Well, a car. It was cheaper to hire a car.”

“What part of LA does Noah live in?” Jessie asks. 

“Glendale,” Finn says.

“Oh,” Jessie says, because now that she’s asked, she realizes that doesn’t tell her anything, since she doesn’t know LA. “Is that far?” 

“It’s like twenty or twenty-five miles from here, but Puck seemed to think it was gonna take a long time to get there,” Finn says. “I guess the traffic around here is pretty bad?”

“Well, yeah, they always have those pictures on the news,” Jessie says, walking towards the man with the “Hudson” sign. “But you have his address?” 

“I do. The driver should, too,” Finn says. 

“Okay.” The process of loading all of Jessie’s luggage, plus Finn’s backpack, into the car and then driving down really wide freeways doesn’t make anything less surreal. When the car finally pulls up in front of a brown and tan apartment building, it stops, and Jessie and Finn climb out, unloading all of the luggage and then walk towards a door that’s down just a few steps. 

“Is he home?” Jessie asks, looking up and down the street. 

“Of course he is,” Finn says. “He wouldn’t leave us sitting here waiting for him. Go on and knock.”

“He might if he got stuck in traffic,” Jessie points out, but she knocks anyway, trying to remind herself that this where she’s going to be living, not just visiting. 

The door swings open, and Noah doesn’t look that different than the last time she saw him, around Hanukkah. “You almost beat me back,” he says, pulling her in the door and then into a hug, tighter than the one he gave her before he left for LA back in the summer. “Tired, Minnie Mouse?” 

Jessie starts to shake her head no, then nods instead. “Maybe a little,” she admits. 

“You can crash on my bed for a little while before we go eat lunch,” Noah says, taking her bags from her and nudging her towards the bed. Jessie nods again and walks over, taking off her shoes before flopping down belly-first. She can hear what sounds like Noah setting her bags down, then maybe hugging Finn, too. 

“Thanks, dude,” Noah says. 

Finn waves his hand at Noah. “It’s all good,” he says. “Of course I got her here.”

“Dude,” Noah says, and Jessie wonders if she’ll ever figure out how they seem to know what each variation of ‘dude’ means. 

“Uh-uh, dude,” Finn answers. 

“Yeah huh,” Noah says. “Pop?” 

“Yeah. Jessie?”

Jessie lifts her arm and waves dismissively at them, then turns her head away and closes her eyes. She can hear Noah opening the refrigerator and the sound of two cans of pop being opened, and then she lets herself fall asleep. 

 

Puck doesn’t let the conversation get very deep during the day on Friday. They go to lunch, then Ikea, and he and Finn manage to put together the bed, at least, so Jessie has a place to sleep. They have hot dogs and mac ‘n cheese for dinner, watch some Simpsons reruns, and then Jessie goes to take a shower and go to bed. Puck waits until he hears the shower running before he walks over to the bed and sits down, leaning over to reach under it. 

“If I told you I could produce for you a beer right now, would you want it?” he asks Finn. 

“Can you produce for me _two_ beers?” Finn asks. 

Puck laughs. “Yeah, but drink ‘em one at a time,” he says, pulling out a total of four beers before he stands up. “Jessie’ll go straight to bed after her shower, so our not-actually-legal beers are fine.” 

“Weird thing to think about,” Finn says. “Having to worry about whether or not that’s okay.”

“It’s one of the things I moved around last night,” Puck admits as he sits down on the sofa. He opens two of the beers and hands one to Finn. “How long can you stay out here for?” 

Finn shrugs. “I haven’t bought a return ticket yet, since I wasn’t sure how long you’d need me.”

“Don’t change your mind when I remind you you’re squeezing onto that full-size bed over there with me,” Puck says wryly. “It’s too late to get to the airport tonight.” 

“Hey, not the first time we’ve squeezed into a bed,” Finn says. 

“Usually only for one night at a time, and Nationals doesn’t count.” 

“It’s fine,” Finn says. “Seriously, as long as you guys need me, I’ll stay out here.”

“I don’t even know what we need from the grocery store,” Puck says. “I thought I had a pretty good rhythm going, you know? A little light on the social outlets, sure, but otherwise pretty good.” 

“And now everything’s got to change,” Finn says, shaking his head slightly. 

“Yeah.” Puck drinks some of his beer. “Sorry I didn’t tell you about the classes. I didn’t tell anybody in case, you know, and then it was months later and I hadn’t said anything.” 

“It’s okay. I get it,” Finn says. “But it’s going well?”

“Yeah. It’s just the community college, about four miles from here, but you know, I can’t clean pools until I’m sixty-five,” Puck says, then laughs. “Can you imagine?” 

Finn laughs, too. “Yeah, that would be ridiculous.”

“I, uh, just applied for the RN program. So if I get in, I can’t drop back to half-time.”

“Yeah,” Finn says. “That’s great, though! So you’re gonna be a nurse?”

“In theory, anyway. I mean, give me two and a half years, and I’m really stable, and Jessie’s almost fifteen, and we’re good, right?” Puck says. 

“Until then, though?” Finn asks. 

“Your guess is as good as mine. Want that second beer?” 

“Yeah.”

Puck nods and opens the remaining two beers. He can hear the shower stop and Jessie go into her room, the door clicking behind her. “What about you?” 

“What about me?” Finn asks. 

“Anything you haven’t told me?” Puck nudges Finn’s foot with his. “Seeing anyone, anything like that.” 

Finn shrugs and shakes his head. “Not really. I work at the tire shop some, help with the glee club some, but nothing really, you know, important or anything.”

Puck takes a long gulp of beer, trying to convince himself not to say anything, but when he puts the now-empty bottle down on his side table, he hasn’t convinced himself yet. “Stay,” he blurts out. 

“In LA?”

“I know you didn’t want to before, but you could. You still could.” 

“You still want me to?” Finn asks. 

Puck puts his head back against the sofa and turns it towards Finn. “ _Dude_.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Finn says. “But what am I gonna do out here? Where am I gonna sleep? Your floor?” He laughs again. “I remember what you said about one bed.”

Puck grins. “I didn’t say you couldn’t, just what it meant.” 

“Guess nobody out here knows us, so who’s gonna say anything, right?” 

“Does it matter?” Puck shrugs. “Anyway, you could take classes, too, or clean pools with me, or both.” 

“I’ll think about it,” Finn says. “It’s been way too long of a day to decide about it right now.”

“That’s why I’m striking now. Iron is hot, you’re pliable, all that,” Puck says with a short laugh. “You want to watch something or go on to bed?” 

“I don’t think my brain can handle a show right now.”

“You want the bathroom first, then?” 

Finn nods. “Yeah, sure.”

“See, it’d work,” Puck says, nudging Finn’s foot again. Finn just laughs as he finishes his beer, then gets up and heads for the bathroom. Puck tosses the bottles into recycling as he hears the shower start up again, then checks the door and turns off most of the lights. He isn’t as tired as Finn probably, but an early night doesn’t sound like the worst idea. 

After Finn showers, Puck takes his turn in the bathroom, turning out the last of the lights in the apartment as he climbs into the bed. Finn is already dozing, his breathing even and deep, and Puck closes his eyes as he sinks into the mattress. Maybe he’s even tireder than he thought, because his next conscious thought is in the middle of the night, at least according to the moonlight and streetlight seeping in the window, and Finn is wrapped around him from behind, spooning him with whole-body involvement. 

“Hmph,” Puck says softly, grinning a little. “An entire full-size bed and you’re still in close quarters, huh?” 

“You said you didn’t say I couldn’t,” Finn mutters, not sounding entirely or even mostly awake. 

Puck laughs quietly. “No, that’s true.” He closes his eyes again, taking a few deep breaths. Finn sort of snuffles the back of Puck’s neck and doesn’t say anything else. Puck smiles again. “‘Night, Finn.” 

 

Jessie wakes up on Saturday morning disoriented. She doesn’t feel tired at all, even though it’s still dark outside, and it takes her a full minute to remember everything that happened the day before and the two weeks before that. She turns on a lamp and reads for awhile, and then when she has to use the bathroom, she decides it’s light enough outside to go look for breakfast food in the main room. 

Finn and Noah are still asleep, and as Jessie’s eyes readjust to the dim light, she bites back a laugh. Noah’s almost invisible, between the blankets and Finn aggressively spooning him, draped over him. Jessie hadn’t even realized that Finn was going to sleep in the bed with Noah, though she supposes the sofa would be too small for Finn. 

Finn lifts his head from the pillow. “Hey, Minnie Mouse,” he says sleepily. “Did you eat breakfast?”

“No,” Jessie says. “I don’t know what Noah has.” 

“Me, either, but you can probably eat anything he has. You want help?”

“You might wake him up,” Jessie says matter-of-factly. 

Finn looks puzzled at first, then looks down at his arm draped over Noah. “Oh. Yeah, I might.”

“It’s okay. You can go back to sleep,” Jessie offers. 

Finn’s head drops back down onto the pillow. “Okay. Get me if you need me.”

Jessie shakes her head, quietly going through the cabinets until she finds a box of cereal, a bowl, and a spoon. The refrigerator has a small jug of milk in it, probably purchased for her, since it’s not open yet, and Jessie takes the cereal back to her small room, sitting underneath her bed with the door now open. 

Neither of them move in the other room for a long time, but eventually Jessie wants another bowl, and then to put her bowl in the sink, and after she does that, she stands near the foot of the bed. 

“Finn,” she hisses. 

“Hmm?” Finn says, his head popping up off the pillow again. “Yeah?”

“How long are you staying?” If it’s something like ‘until the Ikea stuff is put together’, Jessie might decide to hide a part or two for at least a few days. 

Finn rubs his eyes with one hand. The other arm appears to be trapped under Noah. “I don’t know yet. Puck asked me to stay, but I have to think about it.”

“Why?” 

“To help out, I guess.”

Jessie rolls her eyes. “No, why do you have to think about it.” 

“Because my family and all my stuff is still in Lima,” Finn says. 

“Really?” 

“It’s a big decision, okay? I couldn’t make it at ten o’clock after flying and building furniture all day!”

“Whatever,” Jessie says with a huff. 

“Huh?” Noah mumbles, and Jessie realizes that now he’s turned on his other side, his face pressed against Finn. Finn shifts a little so his arm is less trapped under Noah and more wrapped around him.

“Nothing. Go back to sleep,” Finn says. 

“Minnie Mouse is trying to blow the house down,” Noah says. 

“We’ll be quieter, okay?” Finn says. “Sleep.”

“Mmmhmm,” Noah says, and Jessie raises her eyebrow at Finn when Noah ends up burrowed against Finn again. 

“What?” Finn says to her. 

Jessie shrugs. “I just didn’t realize.” 

“Realize what?”

“I’m going to go read my book,” she says quietly. “Let me know when we’re doing anything.” 

“Realize what, Jessie?” Finn says. 

“That kind of staying,” Jessie says with another shrug. 

Finn lets out a little huff of air. “I don’t know what that means.”

“Oh. Okay,” Jessie says, feeling her face heat up a little. Finn’s head falls back down onto the pillow. Jessie goes back to her room, pulling out her book and going as far under her blankets as she can and still see to read. She’ll wait and see if Finn stays or what else might happen. 

 

Puck doesn’t particularly want to get up or even open his eyes, even though he can tell through closed eyelids that the sun is already pretty bright. He buries his face into his pillow for a good thirty seconds or so before he realizes that he’s on his side, not his stomach, and his pillow isn’t near as yielding as it used to be. Puck frowns and pulls back a little, eyes still closed. 

“Finn?” 

“Yeah?”

“You’re not my pillow.” 

“Uh, yeah, I am, technically.”

Puck snorts. “You aren’t feathers.” 

“Yeah, but your head’s on me,” Finn points out.

“Maybe,” Puck says. “How late is it?” 

“Pretty late, I think.” Finn shifts and sits up a little. “You got somewhere you need to be?”

Puck shakes his head. “Nah. Jessie up?” 

“Yeah, ages ago. I think she ate all the food in your kitchen.”

“Thank God I hadn’t bought that much yet, then,” Puck says. “How’d she seem? She say anything?” 

“Yeah, uh…” Finn sits up all the way, making Puck have to flop onto his back. “She didn’t know why I hadn’t already decided to stay by whatever-o’clock this morning.”

“Huh?” Puck says. “I’m not following you.” 

“She asked how long I was staying. I told her you said I could stay, and she didn’t understand why I had to think about it first.”

“What’d you tell her?” Puck asks, squinting as he looks up at Finn. 

“My stuff is still in Lima,” Finn says. 

“So’re her books, though, so maybe that’s why she was confused.” 

“Yeah. Anyway, all I said was I didn’t make a decision last night,” Finn says. 

“Which is true. She say anything else?” 

Finn shakes his head. “She started to, but then she didn’t.”

“You know how she is. Probably she decided it was too dramatic or something, left it for me to say.” Puck shrugs. “Only problem for her is that I don’t know what it was.” 

“Probably for the best. She was making a weird face while she wasn’t saying it,” Finn says. 

Puck grins. “How could you tell the difference?” 

“You’re hilarious,” Finn says, in his you’re-not-hilarious voice.

“You used to tell me _I_ had a weird face, and she _is_ my sister,” Puck says. 

“You still do.”

“Hey!” Puck says. “See if I use you as a pillow tonight.” 

“See if I let you!” Finn counters. 

“So rude,” Puck says, sniffing as he pouts. “And I was going to ask if there was anything you wanted to do today particularly.” 

“I think what I _need_ to do is figure out what I’m doing,” Finn says. “What I _want_ to do is eat something.”

“I could take you two to the beach. It’s warm enough here in February. You can always contemplate your future while sitting on the nice, warm sand,” Puck says. “And there’s food there.”

“I don’t have a swimsuit or anything.”

“Oh my God, there’s like twenty Targets between here and the beach. Probably five or six Walmarts, too,” Puck says. 

“Beach sounds good, then,” Finn says. 

“Good,” Puck says, feeling smug. “You want to get breakfast when we stop for your swimsuit?” 

“I think it might be lunchtime now,” Finn says. “Late lunch. Really late lunch.”

“Maybe in Ohio, but not here.” Puck gestures to the sunlight coming in. “See, the shadows are still pretty long.” 

“Jessie’s been up for hours and hours.”

“She went to bed around eight, whether she realized it or not, and she was always a morning person. I promise you, it’s not lunchtime. Check your phone,” Puck says. “Or mine.” 

Finn leans over the edge of the bed for his jeans, getting the phone out of the pock. “Weird. It’s barely ten.”

“Told you,” Puck sing-songs. “So breakfast near Target?” 

“Sure. I need sunscreen, too,” Finn says. 

“Oh, yeah, I guess you do,” Puck says. “I should probably make Minnie Mouse wear some too, huh?” 

“I think that’s the responsible emergency guardian thing to do,” Finn says. 

“I could make us laugh and her roll her eyes, and buy her the kid sunscreen,” Puck says. “The one with the girl and the dog.” 

“But she _is_ a kid,” Finn says. “She _needs_ kid sunscreen.”

“I thought it was _my_ job to be in denial about how old she is, not yours,” Puck says with a laugh. 

“I don’t know, dude. I’m the one who had to go get her at your old place, so I kind of feel a little like her other emergency guardian now,” Finn says. 

“I really didn’t think… I don’t know, I figured she needed your number in case Mom forgot she’d stayed after school late or that kind of thing,” Puck says. “Not that she left her for more than a week.” 

“Well, I’m glad she had it.”

“Yeah. Thanks,” Puck says. “Really.” 

“I really _really_ didn’t mind,” Finn says. 

“You’re only saying that now because of the beach,” Puck says jokingly. “It’s cool, that was all part of my plan.” 

“Oh yeah? Tricking me out here with Minnie Mouse and then keeping me prison with the power of the beach?”

“I didn’t trick you out here, I’m just capitalizing on your presence,” Puck says. 

“Somebody tricked me. I just have to figure out who,” Finn says. 

“You _have_ to?” 

“Yeah.”

“Why, exactly?” Puck asks.

Finn smiles. “So I can thank them, obviously.”

“Sap,” Puck says as he laughs and sits up. “C’mon. Manhattan Beach’ll knock your socks off.” 

 

Jessie isn’t totally sure why Noah’s insistent on taking them to the beach for the day, especially since it involves a stop for breakfast, a stop at Target for swimsuits, beach towels, and sunscreen, and then finding a place to park, all before they ever reach the beach itself. By the time Jessie puts down her towel, Noah’s already talking about finding some lunch and bringing it back to the beach for them to eat. It’s a lot of work, and that’s what Jessie thinks right up until the moment it hits her: she’s standing on a _beach_ in February. 

Maybe that’s the point Noah is trying to make, whether it’s to her or to Finn or both of them. Jessie knows there’s probably a lot of things that she doesn’t understand, because even though she’s smart and what her teachers call ‘savvy’, she’s only twelve. She’s smart and savvy enough to know that means something. Still, the idea of Finn staying makes her feel better. 

Because as awesome as it is to be on the beach in a swimsuit and dashing in and out of the waves on a day in February, LA is huge and different. Noah at least went to New York and Chicago with New Directions before he went to LA, but Jessie hadn’t been outside of Ohio until the day before, except for the two times her classes had gone on field trips into Indiana. Noah’s been in LA for eight months, and it makes Jessie feel like he’s already someone from LA. Finn is like her—in LA but not from it, not yet at least. 

Jessie finds a spot where the waves aren’t too high and sits there, back to the sun, where she can look to her right and watch Noah and Finn. Noah sits with their stuff for a while, shooing Finn into the water, and then when Finn flops onto his new beach towel, Noah disappears, returning with food. He waves her up to the towels to eat fish and chips, and then heads down to the waves himself while Jessie’s still eating. 

She knows eventually Noah’ll have to act more like a guardian and a little less like a brother, but it’s Saturday, and he still isn’t _that_ much older than her. After her week alone, the idea of having to help out but not make the decisions isn’t a bad one, and Noah did manage to sort out a room for her pretty fast. It doesn’t change the fact that she still thinks it’d be better somehow if Finn stayed, even if she can’t name it. 

As it gets hotter out, Noah goes off for fifteen minutes or so before coming back with a beach umbrella and three cups of soft-serve, and he leaves half of his cup uneaten beside Finn before running into the waves. 

“I guess that’s one reason _he_ likes LA,” Jessie says to Finn. 

“It’s a good reason,” Finn says. 

“I still can’t decide. Is the beach for me or for you or both of us?” 

Finn shrugs. “Both, maybe. Does it make you feel any better about this?”

“I think that Noah’s right,” Jessie says. 

“About what?” Finn asks. 

“About you.” Jessie finishes her ice cream and lies back on her beach towel. “You should stay.” 

“You know you guys would be just fine without me,” Finn says. 

“But Noah’d be happier if you were here, and I wouldn’t be the only one was new here.” 

“Yeah, but his place is kind of small. I don’t want to be in the way.”

“Ask him about it again, then, but I still think he’s right,” Jessie says. “I’m going down to the water as soon as he gets back. Or maybe now.” She rolls over and looks down the beach. “Yeah, now, before that volleyball game ends.” She stands up and tries to smirk like Noah. “Talk to him!” 

“Okay, okay!” Finn says. Jessie laughs and runs towards the waves. If LA means the beach every weekend, it won’t be bad at all. 

 

When Puck walks back up towards their towels, Jessie is gone, and Finn is watching Puck approach. “Do I have something on my nose?” Puck asks, dropping down onto his towel. 

“Huh?” Finn says. “No.”

“Did my hair do the weird thing in back?” 

“No. You look fine. Weirdo.”

“You’re the one that was staring at me!” Puck says. 

“I wasn’t staring!” Finn says. 

“Okay, you were watching me intently. Better?” 

Finn nods. “Yeah, better than staring at least. I was just thinking, was all.”

“Yeah? Anything good?” Puck asks. 

“I was thinking about how much I’ve missed you since you’ve been here,” Finn says. “I didn’t really let myself think about that while I was still in Lima, how everybody else was gone and I was still there.”

“Yeah. I guess you needed to be there until now,” Puck says. “It’s been weird being out here pretty much alone.” 

“You’ll have Minnie Mouse now, though,” Finn says. 

“Well, yeah, but that’s not what I mean.” 

“You haven’t met anybody?” Finn asks. His voice sounds funny. “Like, I don’t know, _somebody_?”

“Nah. I mean, there’s some people in some of pre-nursing classes that we get together for a study group, but that’s about it,” Puck says. “It’s not the same.” 

“But not dating anyone or anything?”

Puck shakes his head, then looks over at Finn and grins. “Why? You offering?” 

Finn turns a little pink and ducks his head. “I was just, you know. If you were gonna have somebody over a lot, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for me to stay.”

“I’m not gonna have anybody over, and that wasn’t a _no_.” 

“Yeah, I guess it wasn’t a no,” Finn says. 

“Wouldn’t have to miss me if you were here,” Puck says. 

“Yeah, but maybe you’d get sick of me, and then what’ll I do?”

“Ally yourself with Minnie Mouse and stage a coup?” Puck jokes, grinning widely. “Nah, I wouldn’t get sick of you.” 

“Okay,” Finn says. 

“Okay what? Because I’m not actually a fan of the coup plan.” 

“Okay, I’ll stay,” Finn says. “Cool?”

“Uh, _yeah_ ,” Puck says, his grin returning. “You cool with the bed situation?” 

“Didn’t I _seem_ cool with the bed situation?”

“Just making sure you were still cool with it when it came to long-term.” 

“Two dudes in a bed,” Finn says, raising his eyebrows. 

Puck nods. “Yeah. Two dudes in a bed. Maybe with less t-shirt than last night?” 

Finn turns pink again. “Yeah. Maybe so.”

“Keep turning pink and I’ll have to put some sunscreen on you,” Puck says. “Double-check your back for you.” 

“I don’t think it’s the sun,” Finn says. 

“I could still rub your back,” Puck says with a grin. “Unless you wanted to save that for tonight?” 

“I wouldn’t say no to either one.”

“I think… I think you should lie down here and I could kiss you,” Puck says. 

Finn’s face gets a little pinker, but he does lie down next to Puck, tentatively putting his hand on the back of Puck’s head. He pulls Puck towards him gently. Puck nudges his nose against Finn, then tilts his head to kiss Finn softly. Finn holds Puck close as they kiss. Puck flicks his tongue against Finn’s lips, scooting his legs closer, too. Finn’s lips part against Puck’s. 

Puck pushes his tongue past Finn’s lips, opening his own lips wider and suddenly hoping Jessie found the beach _really_ interesting for awhile. Puck figures it’s been five minutes or so before he hears a few people whistling, and he pulls back with a laugh. 

“We’re _those_ people,” he says to Finn. 

“Uh… oops?” Finn says. “I don’t really mind, though.”

“I definitely wasn’t complaining.” Puck threads his fingers with Finn’s and shifts a little on the towel. “How much longer do you want to stay before we head home?” 

“We could give Minnie Mouse a little more time out there.”

“Tire her out so she goes to bed at eight again?” 

“You read my mind,” Finn says. “You’re good at that.”

Puck laughs. “Oh, I’m good at a _lot_ of things.” 

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Most of those have to wait until we’re home,” Puck says. “Unless you’re into providing a show for others.” 

Finn turns bright pink. “Okay, that’s probably true.”

“Gives you something to look forward to, though.” 

“Yeah,” Finn says, laughing. “So I guess I’m moving to LA, huh?”

Puck laughs with him. “I think you already have.” 

They’re still laughing when Jessie comes back up to the towels, giving them a weird look. “Can we stay another hour or so?” she asks finally. 

“Yeah, Minnie Mouse,” Puck says, glancing at Finn as he answers. “We’ll stay another hour or so before we go home.” 

“All of us,” Finn says. 

“Yeah?” Jessie says to Finn. “All?” 

“Yep. I decided I just couldn’t leave a place where I can go to the beach in February,” Finn says. 

Puck smirks. “Knew that’d work.”


End file.
